I recently moved to a home with well water and the stains are ridiculous. I'm getting over the tub, sink and toilet stains, but I am a chef and my coats are made of some crazy stain absorbing fabric apparently. All of my coats now look as if I've been washing them in half water, half coffee. Is there any way to keep the stains in my water from getting into my coats while still getting them clean? Is there a difference in the amount of staining that hot water can do opposed to cold water?

Kathryn from Tampa, Florida

Answers

Anonymous

December 4, 20080 found this helpful

Best Answer

My family had well water for many years, and I had the same problem. I used to take all the light-colored clothes to the laundramat; no amount of bleach or detergent, or anything else could make the clothes white. Our water also had a mineral taste, and little "floaties" hanging around in it; we bought drinking water in gallon jugs every week for drinking water. (we lived far out in the country where water delivery from a water supplier was not available.) Eventually, we had to buy a water system that cleaned all the water before it came into the house.

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At that time, we rented the system from Culligan; they do not rent anymore, you have to purchase the system, and maintain it yourself. Other water-purifying systems made by different companies are an option as well. I would recommend this as something to look into; it seemed to be the best solution for the problem. (no more hauling clothes for a family of nine all around the country to be washed, yay!) Hope this helps, good luck. from: Been There, Done That

Sounds like you have iron in your water. To see if that is so, pour a little water into a white container. Add a little bleach. If the water turns an amber color - you've got iron. I too have the same problem, but solved it in two ways.

First, eliminate using detergent that contains any type of bleach. I used to swear by Tide, only to find it contained bleach. In Canada, we have "Sunlight" detergent that does not contain bleach.

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What a difference it made to the laundry. Don't know if you have Sunlight, but read the labels. Same great result with the dishwasher by switching to ElectoSol without bleach.

The other, more expensive, solution is a water softener combined with an aerator. Don't soak anything in your water. If you must soak something, do it with bottled water.

When we lived in Georgia (think iron-rich red clay!) the one way they were able to keep the kids softball uniforms white was to wash them in CASCADE powder-style dishwasher detergent in warm to hot water. It was able to remove the iron and clean the uniforms quite well - even on synthetics. Cascade may not be good for colors though so test carefully.

My in-laws had the same problem and finally bought a water-softener. More expensive in the short term, but thought that it made up for it in less damaged clothing and fixtures.